User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
During my field data collection, I collected 10 replicates from each of my two substrates, access to sunlight (uncovered from tree cover) and limited access to sunlight (covered by tree cover), this amounted to 20 replicates in total. I collected my replicates using a 1.0 by 0.5 meter quadrat and collected them along a transect in a straight line and randomized my steps between each sample. The quadrat was placed beside where my foot fell on the last step. After my initial collection, I had considered doing a point count rather than a percent cover but decided to stick with my initial measurement method of percent cover as the vast majority of the cover was English Ivy with few other plants to have to work around so I decided I will have adequate accuracy using percent cover. I did not face many challenged when collecting data, besides having to be very careful walking around the Ivy as it got very thick in some areas and I did not want to harm them! I did not notice any patterns that made me reflect on the hypothesis. My two substrate areas are very close in proximity, the major difference I observed between them being the tree line where the forest canopy starts and stops but it creates a drastic difference in the abundance of the Ivy.
